Leon’s Swan Song

Leon Osin­s­ki has worked as a librar­i­an at Eind­hoven Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­nol­o­gy for 32 years. Here, we cel­e­brate his career suc­cess and long ser­vice as a founder mem­ber of 4TU.ResearchData as he begins his retire­ment.

Let’s rewind to 1988. The first famous cyber worm posed a major attack on the inter­net; ini­tial dis­cus­sions at CERN led to the inven­tion of the World Wide Web; and, on the 1st of August, Leon Osinksi start­ed his posi­tion as a librar­i­an with­in the Fac­ul­ty of Phi­los­o­phy and Social Sci­ences at TU/e.

Blast from the past! Leon start­ed his role as Phi­los­o­phy and Social Sci­ences
Fac­ul­ty Librar­i­an at TU/e in 1988 (pho­to TU/e).

The birth of the web

Leon has wit­nessed the exten­sive dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion of aca­d­e­m­ic insti­tu­tions brought about by the World Wide Web. “When I first joined the library, I could nev­er have imag­ined the changes that were about to take place. The inter­net devel­op­ments changed every­thing.”

He reflects on the uncer­tain­ty of that time. “Some of my col­leagues were very appre­hen­sive about these devel­op­ments. I remem­ber many debates about whether or not they would be good for the library.”

Yet, Leon’s per­son­al thoughts on the sub­ject have always been pos­i­tive. He began writ­ing arti­cles about the inter­net in the library’s mag­a­zine, and deliv­ered cours­es on the inter­net for fac­ul­ty staff. 

“The inter­net con­nect­ed the world in a way that was not pos­si­ble before,” says Leon. “The library became increas­ing­ly more dig­i­tal. With the advent of new tools and ser­vices, that lat­er became open access, the library became more than just a build­ing for books and jour­nals; it became a vir­tu­al hub for knowl­edge exchange between researchers around the world.”

The rise of the repos­i­to­ry

Leon in the Fac­ul­ty Library of Indus­tri­al Design and
Inno­va­tion Sci­ences at TU/e in 2006.

“Data repos­i­to­ries are the best way to share data,” says Leon. “Datasets should be recog­nised as a pri­ma­ry research out­put, includ­ing those that are not linked to an arti­cle.”

The 4TU.ResearchData Con­sor­tium

First came the estab­lish­ment of insti­tu­tion­al repos­i­to­ries for pub­li­ca­tions, then came 4TU.ResearchData as a con­sor­tium ini­tia­tive of three tech­ni­cal uni­ver­si­ties; TU Delft, TU/e and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Twente, for research data.

Leon explains the ben­e­fits of a cross-insti­tu­tion­al infra­struc­ture for data shar­ing. “The con­sor­tium brings part­ners togeth­er to work towards their com­mon goal of mak­ing data FAIR with­in sci­ence, engi­neer­ing and design dis­ci­plines.” 

He adds, “Part­ners no longer have to work in iso­la­tion, but rather they can pool exper­tise and resources to solve prob­lems togeth­er.”

Leon believes in ‘strength in num­bers’ when it comes to dri­ving cul­tur­al change. 

“As one of the largest data repos­i­to­ries of its kind in the Nether­lands, 4TU.ResearchData offers a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty for com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment. Through col­lab­o­ra­tive train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and net­work­ing, it’s pos­si­ble to raise aware­ness about the ben­e­fits of prop­er research data man­age­ment and data shar­ing amongst a wider audi­ence.” 

No time to share?

Leon has been involved in pro­mot­ing the use of the 4TU.ResearchData repos­i­to­ry by TU/e researchers since its incep­tion ten years ago. Whilst the advan­tages of shar­ing data have become clear to many over the past decade, com­mon objec­tions still exist…

• ‘My data are only of inter­est to me, so there’s no point in shar­ing it’,
• ‘I col­lect con­fi­den­tial data, so I can’t share it’… and 
• ‘Archiv­ing my data is labo­ri­ous and time con­sum­ing, so I won’t share it’

…are just a few exam­ples. 

In Leon’s expe­ri­ence, the lat­ter objec­tion has always been the most promi­nent and chal­leng­ing to over­come. How to con­vince a researcher to add data man­age­ment tasks to their already bur­den­some work­load? 

…It’s like read­ing a book

Leon admits that mak­ing data avail­able requires a new way of work­ing that takes some time get­ting used to. 

“Whether it’s writ­ing a data man­age­ment plan, mak­ing notes in a lab book, or get­ting to grips with meta­da­ta doc­u­men­ta­tion, prepar­ing to share data requires an ini­tial invest­ment of time and effort. You have to do it if you want to work togeth­er, and it saves time and effort in the long run.” 

He com­pares embrac­ing the cul­ture change to read­ing a book that’s been rec­om­mend­ed by a friend. “At first you’re not con­vinced that the book is inter­est­ing. You start read­ing but you’re wrestling with the book. Then, a few pages in you’re hooked and can’t put the book down.” 

Whilst mak­ing the change can be daunt­ing, Leon sees pos­i­tive steps tak­en by ear­ly career researchers who show will­ing­ness to share their data from the out­set. Per­haps, those researchers at the coal­face who are in the thick of col­lect­ing and analysing data are the key to change. 

As Leon’s chap­ter at 4TU.ResearchData comes to an end, his sto­ry con­tin­ues.  

Leon, thank you for shar­ing your ‘Swan Song’. We wish you all the best in your retire­ment… And, hap­py row­ing!